Trump’s Comments On Migrant Caravan Raise A Question — Are ‘Middle Easterners’ Being Smuggled Across The Southwest Border?

President Donald Trump has been criticized for suggesting, without evidence, that Middle Eastern people have slipped into the migrant caravan in Mexico.

While there is no public evidence that Trump’s claim is credible, migrants from the Middle East are known to have been smuggled across the southwest border in the recent past.

Many of these migrants are from “countries of interest” that are known to have acute problems with terrorism.

President Donald Trump made a surprising claim Monday morning about the migrant caravan winding its way toward the U.S. through Mexico — people from the Middle East are among the thousands of Central American travelers.

“Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy [sic].”

When pressed on his assertion later that afternoon, the president doubled down, telling reporters at the White House to “go into the middle” of the caravan, where “You’re gonna find MS-13. You’re gonna find Middle Eastern [people].”

Trump did not offer any supporting evidence for his claims, prompting leading media outlets to pile on with a raft of fact-check articles that generally reached the same conclusion: the president was misleading the public about the nature of the caravan.

The controversy over Trump’s comments overshadowed the relevant fact that people from Middle Eastern countries, including some identified as particularly fertile grounds for terrorism, are known to have been smuggled across the southwest border in the recent past. And illegal immigrants from the Middle East are regularly intercepted by border authorities after crossing from Mexico, though they represent a tiny fraction of the total number of illegal entries.

In fiscal year 2017, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested roughly 310,000 people nationwide, according to Customs and Border Protection figures. Of that number, 61 were nationals of countries the Department of State defines as being in the greater Middle East.

Whether land-based illegal immigration of Middle Eastern nationals constitutes a security threat above and beyond that presented by Central Americans is something of an open question in the government. The White House Strategy for Counterterrorism released earlier in October does not mention possible infiltration of terrorists across the southwest border.

However, the State Department’s “Country Reports On Terrorism 2017,” which was released in September, did concede that terrorist groups could exploit deficiencies in border security along human smuggling routes into the U.S.

That possibility is illustrated in two recent cases in which human smugglers managed to sneak dozens of migrants in a higher-risk category known as “special interest aliens” (SIAs) into the U.S. by way of the southwest border. SIAs are nationals of countries the government believes to have notable terrorism problems, including the five Middle Eastern and greater Middle Eastern countries on Trump’s travel ban list: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in August arrested Jordanian-Mexican dual national Moayad Heider Mohammad Aldairi at JFK Airport in New York. The Monterrey, Mexico-based Aldairi smuggled at least six Yemenis across the southwest border into Texas between July 2017 and December 2017, according to a criminal complaint.

Prior to Aldairi’s arrest, Pakistani national Sharafat Ali Khan pleaded guilty in April 2017 to human smuggling charges for running a network that sent dozens of illegal immigrants to the U.S. via Brazil and Mexico. Most of the smuggled migrants were from Pakistan, which was left off the travel ban list but is considered a special interest country because of the prevalence of terrorist groups operating there.

There is no indication that any of the people smuggled into the U.S. in these two cases had ties to terrorism. But border authorities have reported arresting foreign nationals thought to be members of designated terrorist groups, including at least two members of al-Shabaab, the Somalian al-Qaeda affiliate, in 2014.

As for the current migrant caravan, Trump acknowledged Tuesday that he didn’t know for sure if Middle Eastern migrants had slipped into the procession

“There’s no proof of anything,” he said.

Administration officials similarly dismissed the idea that a terrorist group could be using the caravan as cover to slip operatives into the U.S.

“We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border,” an American counterterrorism official was quoted as saying by The New York Times and other outlets.

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12 Comments

A Jordanian man living in Mexico smuggled in six citizen of Yemen for a fee. He also smuggled Special Interest Aliens into the U.S. thru Texas for various funds. Yemen is a major base for Islamic militants and deemed a high threat by our government. Foreigners from nations with terrorist ties have been slipping into the U.S. for years. Mexico drug cartels smuggle nationals of terrorist countries into small Texas towns near El Paso using rural farm country roads. A top al-Qaida wanted by FBI helped plan a plot to bomb Oprah Winfrey’s studio and detonate nuclear devices in many American cities. An ISIS operative has Mexican drug traffickers help him and other Islamic terrorist cross into the U.S. to explore targets for future attacks. A military intelligence report discloses that more than 30,000migrants who enter thru our southern borders were from countries of “terrorist concern”, Also government figures show a alarming number of migrants from Bangladish an other hotbed of terrorist coming in thru the Mexican border in Texas. This has been going on for years. With this information it would not surprise anyone with any brains to figure out the best way to get here without paying high fees is to come in with this caravan expecting not to get caught. Do you want these people in our country planting real bombs?

“We do not see any evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups are trying to infiltrate the southern U.S. border,”
So what are we supposed to do wait until the blow up a building or perhaps fly an airplane into an office building or perhaps the White House or Capitol building and then go looking for them. This caravan must be stopped before it crosses the boarder and must be stopped by any means necessary. This is not just unlawful immigration this is an Invasion of our country and we as American Citizens have the right to defend our boarders by any means necessary. If these people are really seeking asylum then all they needed to do was go to our Embassy or Consulate in their country and apply, there is no need to travel all the way to our boarder just to be turned around and sent back home.
I fully understand that they are trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, or so they say, and if I were in their position I would do the same thing, but that does not make it right. Invade my home and you Will be Shot, Invade my Country and face the very same action.

I’ll say it again declare marshal law at the point of entry (it is an attack) and detain all, process them. finger prints, facial recognition and dna, then depot them to the farthest point they came from.

I trust our President and his guesses over whatever the media and/or dems say. the opposition lie like rugs anyway!! Saw Jorge Ramos of Univision broadcasting from Mexico with the caravan, he told Tucker Carlson not to lie to the public. Yet he could give no proof that there were no terrorists among the caravan! Any person with a working brain and that thinks for themselves can make educated guesses that the caravan MAY be hiding the BAD people.

I really don’t care if there are people from the middle-east mixed in with this Mob. They need to be stopped by what ever means is needed. This is an invasion and the Mexican government is helping them by giving them a military escort to our boarders because they don’t want them to stay in Mexico. The military should be posted at our boarder with a shoot to kill order, no shields or barriers, You cross the boarder you will be shot. Start with anyone who appears to be leading any of the smaller groups or who seem to be the most vocal. Take out the leaders and the rest will get the hint that this might be a bad idea and that this president, President Trump is not obama and he and his Socialist minions will not be there to welcome them. President Trump will not allow our country to be attacked. Make no mistake this is an attack and invasion

Are these “experts” really that naive, incompetent, or are they just plain stupid???
Because it’s any or all of those not to believe criminal element is mixed in with those who honestly just want a better life.! And of those who do want a better life, they should be fighting for it (just like we did) in their own countries!!!